Mayan temple menu featured domesticated turkey

Bones from an ancient Mayan archaeological site show the turkey was domesticated more than 1,000 years earlier than previously believed.

“This research has consequences for understanding Maya subsistence because they would have had access to a controlled, managed resource,” says Erin Thornton, a research associate at the Florida Museum of Natural History at the University of Florida.

“The turkey bones came from right within the ceremonial precinct of the site, so these are probably the remains of some sort of elite sacrifice, meal, or feast.”